Playing House
by Hawk Clowd
Summary: One weekend. Two lovers. Three little problems. EirixShuichi
1. The Phone Call

**Title:** Playing House

**Author:** Hawk Clowd

**Disclaimer: **Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right?

**Blood Type:** vodka. It's good for you, really.

**Warnings:** very few.

**Part:** one. If I'm lucky, this one won't last all that long.

**Author's Notes:** I don't like kids.

---

"Hey, Yuki? What's up with this message on the answering machine?"

Eiri jerked away from his computer, startled. He hadn't heard Shuichi come in; the singer had been living with him for a little over seven months or so and Eiri had grown so accustomed to Shuichi's loudly intoned 'I'm home!' every weekday that he had learned to tune it out entirely. This, of course, meant that he never knew exactly when Shuichi returned from work anymore. It was hell on Eiri's nerves, but Shuichi enjoyed the way he could sometimes make the writer jump in surprise.

"What message?" Eiri asked, saving his current document and exiting his study to see Shuichi peering curiously at the answering machine. The singer had apparently just returned; his face was flushed from the early summer heat and he was only just now removing his backpack.

"You didn't hear it when the lady recorded it?" Shuichi asked, peeling his shirt off his sweaty body and moving to collapse spread-eagle on the floor. "Jeez, I love having air conditioning so much..."

The phone was another thing Eiri had learned to ignore over time. "No, I didn't hear it," Eiri answered. "What is it?"

"It's too hot to move. Press the button yourself." Shuichi's arm flopped uselessly on the floor. "Why oh why didn't I accept a ride from Hiro? Then I wouldn't have had to walk home in this heat."

Eiri frowned. "It's only May," he noted. "The hot months haven't even started up yet."

"It's June, dummy, and it's hot!" Shuichi sighed, feigning exhaustion. "Just go ahead and listen to that message."

Consenting, Eiri hit the button on the answering machine. He skipped two messages from Mizuki, the editor of doom, which he'd already heard, and one from Shuichi's producer, who was spazzing about something, before he finally reached the end of the tape and the newest message began to play.

"Are you still planning on taking all of the kids to the park on the nineteenth, like you said you were going to? I'm sure you haven't noticed, since you're always cooped up in your apartment, but there's a bit of a heat wave going on right now and you'll have to take extra care of them all if you take them outside, since I know that I, for one, won't like it if you give my baby back and she's died of heat exhaustion. I was thinking the movies might be a better idea, or even to a concert. I'm sure you, of all people, could arrange something like that. Think about it. Anyway, we'll see you on the eighteenth! Bye!"

The machine blipped off and Shuichi, who had apparently recovered from his imaginary heatstroke, sat up. "So what do you think? Wrong number?"

Eiri shook his head. "I doubt it. You said it was June, now?"

"Yeah. So what?"

"Father's Day is coming up."

Shuichi blinked, confused, and then got up and followed Eiri into the kitchen. "What does that have to do with anything, Yuki? I mean, it's not like you--" He paused and stopped himself in mid-sentence. "You have _kids_?"

Eiri nodded and pulled a beer out of the fridge. "Yes. Do you want anything to drink?"

"How many kids do you have?" Shuichi asked, and, when Eiri didn't answer, he pressed on. "Yuki, how many?"

Popping his can and nudging the refrigerator door shut, Eiri shrugged. "Four, I think."

"You _think_? You don't _know_?"

"I only know about four of them. We'll put it that way." Eiri took a long swig of his beer. He had the feeling he was going to need even more of the mind-fogging beverage before the day was out. "I thought I'd told you about them already. And if I hadn't, you probably should have guessed it. My reputation as a womanizer is as widely recognized as my success as a writer, after all. Given all the women I've screwed around with, I was bound to wind up with a bastard or four." The writer, catching sight of Shuichi's face, frowned. "What?"

"Four different mothers, too?" Shuichi questioned.

"Well, yes. Why is this such a shock to you? I send each of them stipends every month and it isn't as if you don't go through my checkbook all the time when you think I'm not paying attention to you. Didn't you ever wonder why I sent out four checks to four different women every month?"

Shuichi sputtered. "I thought they were publishing companies with super weird names!"

Eiri quirked an eyebrow. "Why would I pay off my publishers? They're the ones who give me _my_ paycheck."

"I can't believe you never told me about this," Shuichi said, his misery and distress evident in his face. When Eiri did not respond, Shuichi questioned him further. "How old are they? Your kids?"

Eiri thought a moment. "Miho is the oldest and she's five. Hibiki and Namiko are three and two, respectively, and Buffy is just under a year old, I believe. Buffy's mother is an English linguist and she named the girl after an American television show. I would have stopped her, but I wasn't given any say in the matter."

"So who was on the phone?"

Eiri shrugged. "Don't know. I also don't care. Not Buffy's mother, I'm sure."

"Why not hers? Are you two fighting?"

"What would we be fighting about?" Eiri frowned. "For one thing, that woman likes to jabber in bad English whenever possible, and she knows that I can speak the language. For another... Well, every Father's Day I take the brats for the weekend and spend a little time with them. Buffy is still a baby, however, and I've made it very clear that I will not take care of anyone under the age of two." He paused. "This will be Namiko's first Father's Day with me, now that I think about it."

Shuichi's mouth was hanging open as he stared, wide-eyed, at the writer.

Eiri shot the singer a look. "You're not going to start crying, are you?" he asked.

Shuichi shook his head slowly. "I think I've gone into shock. This... It's a lot to take in all at one time, you know? You're the father of four kids and I never even knew about it."

"You're being very adult about this," Eiri observed.

"Yeah." Shuichi swallowed. "I think... I think I'm gonna stay at Hiro's tonight, okay? Do you mind?"

"Will he?"

"No."

"Do what you want." Eiri paused as Shuichi turned to leave. "You'll be back tomorrow?"

Shuichi nodded. "Yeah, after work. And we're probably gonna have a lot to talk about. Have a good night, Yuki."

**---to be continued---**


	2. Talking It Out

**Title:** Playing House

**Author:** Hawk Clowd

**Disclaimer: **Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

**Blood Type:** vodka. It's good for you, really.

**Warnings:** very few.

**Part:** two.

**Author's Notes:** yes, the Japanese do celebrate Father's Day in June. I did all my research long before I even started writing this story. Also, I really want a cookie right now--a chocolate chip cookie, in fact. But not a warm, just-out-of-the-oven fresh cookie. I definitely want one right out of the package... I don't know if it's my laziness talking or just my strange need for a cookie, but I'm not going to question it at all.

---

Shuichi did come home the next day, at his usual time, and he immediately sat Eiri down and bombarded the writer with questions. Eiri was slow to answer, making sure his responses were well thought out and explanatory. It was obvious that Shuichi had had help thinking up some of the questions--it seemed highly unlikely to Eiri that Shuichi would think up questions such as "didn't you ever use protection during sex?" (sometimes) and "have you ever been tested for any diseases or infections?" (yes, but not recently)--but the majority of the questions were clearly Shuichi's invention alone.

They finally ended, two hours later, with "Why didn't you tell me?"

Eiri answered that question carefully. "I thought I had. Buffy wasn't even born until after you barged into my life, and it isn't as though Miho's parentage, especially, wasn't pasted all over the news. The mothers call regularly and it's more-or-less common knowledge that I have at least one child. Even if I didn't tell you about them, I would think that your mother or sister--or even your friends--would have brought it up."

Shuichi slumped. "Mom and Maiko tend to ignore things they don't like. Y'know, like the fact that I failed school and still turned out successful, or that I'm not interested in getting married to a nice girl and giving Mom grandkids. I'm sure that you having your own children would be one of those things they wouldn't like." He sighed. "And Hiro an all wouldn't bring it up unless they absolutely had to. They don't really like getting involved with our lives if they can help it."

"I don't like getting involved in our lives either," Eiri muttered, but Shuichi didn't catch it. "So no one told you at all?"

Shuichi shook his head. "I guess I should have guessed it, though. You never made your relationships with all those girls a secret or nothing, after all." He tried a smile, but even Eiri could see that his heart simply wasn't in it. "Are your kids nice?"

Eiri shrugged. "They're just kids, and I see them for a grand total of three or four days a year. It's hard to say. You'll meet them for yourself in a few days, however, so you can decide that for yourself."

Shuichi turned his head sharply to look at Eiri. "Wait, do... Do their mom's all know about you and me being...?"

Rolling his eyes, Eiri flicked Shuichi's ear with his finger. "Everyone in Japan knows about you and me, dummy. The only way they _wouldn't_ know about it would be if they had been living in a very remote cave for the past six--"

"Seven."

"--seven months. Yes, Shuichi, the mothers all know that you exist. One of them is a fan of yours and asked me if I could convince you to give her an autograph, actually."

Shuichi perked up. "Really?"

"Yes. She obviously has no taste in music."

"Which one? I mean, whose mom was it?"

Eiri shrugged. "I don't remember. I probably saved the email, however." Eiri, after all, saved _everything_. Although he outwardly seemed to be neat and orderly, he was truly a packrat at heart. He threw virtually nothing away. He probably would never have taken out the trash if it hadn't been for the smell. Shuichi had once joked that the only things Eiri tossed aside were people and rotting trash, and that was actually closer to the truth than the writer was willing to admit.

"I'll hack into your account later, then." Shuichi moved so that he was sitting next to Eiri and he stealthily wormed his arms around the stoic writer. "I forgive you, by the way."

Eiri looked at the singer with a slight degree of surprise. "You forgive me?" he repeated. "What did _I_ do?"

"And you say _I'm_ dumb," Shuichi noted, giggling. "I forgive you for forgetting to tell me you had a bunch of kids and then for not explaining it all for me good enough." He squeezed the writer gently, in a mock hug. "So what're you gonna do with the kids when they come over for Father's Day? Lock yourself in your office and try to pretend they're not really here?"

Eiri frowned. "For some reason, I expected you to be far more emotional about all of this. I have four children. This doesn't bother you?"

Shuichi shook his head, smiling cheerfully. "I think I got all the emotionality out of my system while I was at Hiro's last night. Poor Hiro!" He laughed. "Besides, I can't control the things you did before I even met you, right? No more than you can control what I did."

"You didn't do anything before me, twit. The only sex you'd ever had was with your own right hand."

Shuichi made a face. "Left hand. You could at least get _that_ right." He giggled. "Anyway, I'm glad you told me about your kids before things got too out of hand, and it's kind of neat. You're a dad and that sorta' indirectly makes me one, too."

Eiri decided it would be better not to comment on that, given that Shuichi's emotional state was rather tentative at the moment and that the singer was Dead Wrong. So, instead, he slid his hand under Shuichi's t-shirt to caress the singer's chest and smirked.

"You'd make a lousy father," Eiri practically purred into Shuichi's neck, kissing it roughly. Shuichi squirmed into the touches, circling his arms around Eiri's neck. He looked like he wanted to respond, but whatever words he'd planned were forgotten when Eiri bit the skin. The singer moaned.

"Yuki..."

"We're going to have three kids in our apartment all this weekend," Eiri pointed out, "and I'm not going to go an entire weekend without having _any_ fun. You might forget everything I've been teaching you these past seven months, and then we'd be back to square one."

Shuichi furrowed his brow. "Square one?"

"Crappy sex. But you're too goddamn loud in bed," Eiri murmured. Shuichi moaned again as Eiri's fingers toyed with the singer's nipples. "See? Like that. So it seems we have two options. One, all my kids go home and tell their mothers just how loud we are when we're supposed to be sleeping and I'll never hear the end of it. Two, I teach you how to shut the hell up. What do you think?"

"Do I..." Shuichi inhaled sharply. "Do I get practical, hands-on lessons?"

Eiri snorted. "You are quite the lecherous one, aren't you?"

"Is that yes?"

"Mmm. I'm sure that Good Old Lefty will be more than happy to--"

Shuichi pulled a pout. "Yuki..."

"All right, then yes." Eiri smirked. "We only have two days to learn, however, so I suppose we should get started."

**---to be continued---**


	3. Meeting the Children

**Title:** Playing House

**Author:** Hawk Clowd

**Disclaimer: **Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

**Blood Type:** vodka. It's good for you, really.

**Warnings:** very few.

**Part:** three

**Author's Notes:** I really don't mind kids that much, now that I think about it, I'm just not overly interested in having any of my own. You see, when I was little I told my mother that I wanted to by a mommy when I grew up, and, being the overly-concerned parent she was, she told me that I couldn't have any kids until I could take care of little things--like plants. So she bought me a flower... which I forgot to water. The flower died. When I found out and cried over it ("Now I can _never_ have kids, Mommy! They'll die, too!"), she bought me a cactus. That was great and all, yes. You don't really have to _do_ anything with a cactus. It just sits in the window and you water it whenever you remember that it's there. The problem? You can't hug a cactus. It _hurts_. I consequently grew up believing that children are prickly and covered with spikes. All in all, that doesn't provide a sound basis for me ever having kids. But I still have that cactus! I heart my cactus.

---

The following Friday was not easy to get through. The writer was as calm as he could possibly manage to be. The heat wave was still hitting Tokyo in full force, so Eiri had to think of new ways to distract the children while they were with him. He'd also realized, belatedly, that his refrigerator was stocked full with beer and nothing else, so he had to brave the grocery store--and the heat--in order to buy something that the children would be allowed to drink. Shuichi, on the other hand, was anxious. He had decided not to go to work that day, much to Eiri's annoyance, and was killing time by flipping through the television channels repeatedly. The kids were scheduled to arrive around seven o'clock, and while Eiri felt it was really no big deal, Shuichi was acting as though the next few days were going to determine his entire future.

By six-thirty that evening, Shuichi was nothing but nerves; he jumped at the slightest noise. Eiri watched the singer, vaguely amused, as Shuichi circled the apartment, trying to get his mind off of things.

"Will you calm down?" Eiri asked once Shuichi had started his ninety-second tour of the apartment. "It's really nothing to worry about."

"For _you_. You're their father--they have to like you. But what if they don't like _me_?" Shuichi asked.

"They don't have to like me at all," Eiri argued. "They just have to respect and revere me. That's what children are supposed to do. Anyway, they'll probably enjoy your company more than mine; you act more like a child than I do, certainly."

"I do not," Shuichi protested weakly. "Do you really think I act like a kid, Yuki?"

Eiri shrugged. "In this case, that's a good thing." He caught Shuichi's arm as the singer passed him again. "Stop. Walking. Around."

"I can't help it! I'm nervous!" He pulled out of Eiri's grasp and began pacing back and forth in front of the couch. Eiri watched dis-interestedly. "I mean, what if they hate me and they tell their moms that I'm a bad person and they start causing problems for us and you get fed up with that and get rid of me just so they'll leave you alone--I wouldn't put it past you, you know--and then you'll forget to eat and sleep and you'll turn into a skeleton man and I'll be living in a box on the street because I won't have the money to do anything else and then you'll waste away to nothing until you're just a pile of bones and stuff piled up in the chair in front of your computer and no one will know you're dead until this icky smell starts coming from the apartment, and even then they'll be afraid to call the police and tell them about it because they'll be wondering if you're really dead or not! And what if you weren't dead? You'd yell at them. You're not a very nice neighbor, you know. And then--"

Eiri interrupted the speech impatiently. "Will you stop that? You have nothing to worry about." He frowned. "I doubt any of the brats would care or even worry about you, and if you ever start to think you're doing something wrong, you can hide out in my bedroom. You'll be sleeping there all of this weekend anyway, so if you tell them you need a nap, I doubt they'll suspect you have any ulterior motives."

Shuichi made a face, but he was smiling. "I'm too old for naps."

Eiri opened his mouth to reply, but the buzzer went off, signaling that someone was outside the apartment complex and wanted to come up. Eiri got up and went to the door to press the intercom button on the wall.

"Who?"

There was a scurry from the other end. Eiri could only catch bits of the conversation--it sounded as though a woman and a young child were arguing about something having to do with speaking into the intercom. Wonderful. Eiri cleared his throat impatiently.

"Who is it?" he asked again.

"I'll tell him," the younger child insisted in the background. Then he yelled loudly into the intercom. "It's us!"

The woman hushed the child. "Ai and Hibiki Kuzuha, Eiri-san. I know that we're a little early, but may we come up?"

"If you want." Eiri hit the appropriate buttons and turned to face Shuichi, who was gnawing on the knuckle of his thumb. "You aren't going to be an idiot, right?" he asked.

The singer shook his head uncertainly. "I think I'll be okay. If you can do it, so can I."

"Good," Eiri replied, pulling the door open just as the Kuzuha pair appeared. It wasn't luck; he'd heard the elevator doors ding when they'd opened. "Shuichi, meet Ai and Hibiki Kuzuha."

Hibiki, who was a three year-old boy with classic Japanese features, put his thumb in his mouth and stared at Shuichi's hair--which had been dyed a light blue only a few days before via the orders of some ridiculous fashion-minded magazine photographer. Shuichi smiled nervously, but his smile faltered as Ai stepped forward. Eiri knew why the singer was struck with another bout of uncertainty; Ai was gorgeous, even after having given birth to Hibiki, and chances were that Shuichi was either intimidated by or attracted to the woman. Eiri had the disconcerting feeling that it was, in fact, the latter. He would have to do something about that later on.

Ai stood in front of Shuichi and looked him over critically. "He's cute," she told Eiri, a note of surprise in her voice.

Eiri frowned. "I like cute."

Ai stepped behind the singer and wrapped her arms around him. If Shuichi had been female, Ai would have been feeling him up. Shuichi was on the verge of panic and Eiri was prepared to step in when Ai released the younger man and stepped back.

"And he's very slight. Almost like a teenage girl, isn't he?" She smirked. "It's nice to see your tastes haven't changed _that_ much."

Eiri shrugged. "I always checked for ID."

"Of course you did," Ai countered smoothly. "After you screwed around with them, of course, but so long as you can still make the claim..."

"I _am_ still in the room, you know," Shuichi said defiantly. "And I am definitely _not_ anything like a teenage girl."

Ai patted his head. "You'll have to forgive me--I was just curious." She turned back to Eiri, picking Hibiki up in her arms. "All of Hi-chan's things are in his backpack. I already gave him dinner and you are _not_ allowed to give him beer like you did last time. He's just getting over a cold, so make sure he has a half-teaspoon of cough medicine before he goes to sleep. Bedtime is at eight o'clock and naptime is at two."

Eiri only half-listened, but he nodded when she was done. Right." There was no chance of him remembering (or even following) her instructions, so it was best to just agree with the crazy woman and then let it be.

She seemed satisfied with that, so she looked at her son. "Okay, sweetie. Mommy is going to leave now. Are you going to be a good boy for Daddy?"

Hibiki nodded. Shuichi, Eiri noticed, winced.

"Good boy." Ai pushed Hibiki to Eiri, who took him grudgingly, and the boy circled his arms around Eiri's neck, almost choking the writer. Then, after planting a kiss on Hibiki's forehead and mussing Eiri's hair, Ai left. Eiri kicked the door closed behind her and sat on the couch. Hibiki didn't seem to want to move, so Eiri let the boy stay there for the time being. Shuichi stood awkwardly a few meters away, shifting uncomfortably.

A few minutes passed before Eiri shot Hibiki a look. "You're being quiet now, but last year you never shut your mouth. What's wrong?"

Hibiki moved to whisper into the writer's ear. Eiri winced and stayed silent, although he noted that Shuichi had noticed the gesture and was trying to hold back his laughter, with surprising success. Eiri's ears were extremely ticklish.

"That man has blue hair," the boy whispered loudly but confidently. "I once had a dream about a blue-haired man and Mommy told me that people can't have blue hair unless there's something wrong with them. Is there something wrong with your friend?"

Eiri looked at Shuichi briefly. The singer was listening intently and he flushed when he caught Eiri's eye. Eiri shook his head.

"He's a magician," Eiri told Hibiki seriously. "He's a very bad one, though, and he knows really lousy tricks. Pretty much all he can do is change the color of his hair, and he uses a special potion to do that."

Hibiki's eyes were wide. "You live with a magician?"

Eiri frowned. Kids these days just didn't listen. "If you can call that a magician, yes."

"What's his name?"

"Shuichi." The intercom buzzed again, so Eiri stood up and set Hibiki down. "Go play with him. Maybe he'll make your hair change color, too."

"'Kay." Hibiki obediently went to talk to Shuichi, who had finally concluded that maybe, just maybe, he did not have to worry about these kids after all.

Before Eiri could even reach the intercom, there was a knock on the door. Someone must have let them in already, he decided, so he opened the door and was immediately shoved to the side by Mawako Nanimen, who had already started drooling over Shuichi--blue hair and all. Namiko, her two-year-old daughter, stepped inside shyly. Her fingers were in her mouth and there was a small suitcase in the hall behind her.

Eiri considered the girl briefly. "You're Namiko," he stated.

She nodded, her brunette pigtails bobbing. "You're my father." She looked past him to where her mother and Hibiki were fighting for Shuichi's attention. "'n that's Thindou-thama, right?"

Eiri hesitated. "That's Shindou Shuichi, yes." Did the girl have a lisp or was he hearing things? He hoped he was hearing things--that would go away soon enough, but children with lisps had always annoyed him. He knew that wasn't fair, but he just couldn't help it.

"My mom thays that Thindou-thama is thexy. Ith thee right?"

It took Eiri almost full minute to decipher that. "You'd have to ask your mother."

"Are _you_ thexy?"

Eiri fought the urge to rip her fingers out of her mouth and sign her up for a speech class. They did offer classes for that sort of thing, didn't they? "Yes. Go talk to your mother."

"What doth thexy mean?"

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. It didn't work. "Ask your mother."

"Are you _really_ my daddy?" she asked, letting her hand drop to her side.

"That's what both your mother and the paternity tests she took told me, and apparently it is very hard to fool a paternity test," Eiri answered, praying she had no more questions for him. What had ever happened to the old 'silence is golden' rule? He'd rather disliked that rule, growing up, but now he understood why his father had mandated it. The child was quiet for a moment; maybe she had no more questions in mind?

"Why ith your hair thuch a funny color?"

Damn.

"Because I'm sexy and sexy people are allowed to have any hair color they want. Didn't you mother ever tell you that?"

"No." Namiko put her fingers back into her mouth and babbled something around them. Eiri frowned, but he just nodded his head as though he had understood and then pushed her gently in the direction of Shuichi, Hibiki, and Mawako. He was already getting a headache, and Miho, his eldest daughter, hadn't even arrived yet.

It was going to be a _long_ weekend.

**---to be continued---**


	4. Miho

**Title:** Playing House

**Author:** Hawk Clowd

**Disclaimer: **Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

**Blood Type:** vodka. It's good for you, really.

**Warnings:** very few.

**Part:** four

**Author's Notes:** Wow. I'm sorry for making everyone wait so long for this chapter (like anyone cares overly much!), but you know how writer's block can be... Unless you're _really_ optimistic, I would expect a wait on the next chapter, too. Also, this part is very, very short--as in, shorter than all of the other ones. I wrote the beginning shortly after writing part three and then wrote bits of pieces of it at work over the summer... and just got around to putting them together now. Sad, isn't it? Yes. Anyway, just feel free to enjoy the chapter.

---

Miho was five years old and she arrived at Eiri's apartment around seven-thirty with both her mother and stepfather in tow. Mawako Nanimen, Namiko's mother (and apparently Shuichi's number one fan), had left reluctantly, although only after receiving Shuichi's autograph, a lock of the singer's hair, concert tickets, and the singer's left shoe (which she grabbed on her way out). Hibiki and Namiko were being suitably entertained by Shuichi when Eiri opened the door for Miho Amawa and family.

Hakana, Miho's stepfather, made a point of ignoring Eiri, who imagined the man resented him for having had illicit relations with Miho's mother. If Eiri remembered correctly, Hakana and the former Amawa-san had been engaged when the pregnancy had been discovered. Eiri did not quite understand why Hakana had been so upset with him; after all, it was not as though he could turn _off_ the infamous Uesugi charm.

The Hakana husband and wife bowed dutifully. Miho stood between them, staying absolutely still with her eyes locked on the scene behind Eiri, where Namiko and Hibiki were climbing all over Shuichi. The singer was trying to be both friendly and polite at the same time and so he threw a smile in the girl's general direction. Miho's frown deepened, and Shuichi's smile faltered. He turned his full attention back to the other two children, brow creased in deep furrows. Eiri noticed this with a certain degree of concern, but did nothing about it. His main problems, at this point, were the Hakanas themselves. While both Hibiki and Namiko's mothers had been rather easy-going and friendly toward Eiri and Shuichi, Miho's parents were not quite so open.

"Thank you for being so good as to spend time with your daughter," the former Amawa-san said stiffly. Eiri was not surprised by the formal tone. The woman resented him for having 'seduced her' and for refusing to take full responsibility for Miho when the girl had been born. She also harbored a grudge; she had been disowned as a result of her pregnancy. "We understand that you are a very busy man, and Miho does love to spend time with you."

Considering the girl's expression and stance, Eiri sort of doubted that. "I enjoy having her here as well," he lied, giving the family a terse smile. He really did hate them. _All_ of them. Even the midget.

The stepfather was glaring at Eiri, who didn't really care--or, at least, convinced himself that he didn't. He looked back toward Shuichi, who was doing his best to keep the other two children entertained. When he looked back toward Miho and family, his gaze met that of Miho's mother. She flushed and looked away quickly.

Eiri hid a smirk. Well, at least he hadn't lost his touch.

"You will take good care of her," the former Amawa-san murmured. It was neither a command nor a request.

Looking down at Miho, Eiri frowned and nodded his head in response. The girl stared up at him; she did not look at all pleased. Seemingly satisfied with that, however, the husband and wife left. As they did, Eiri stared down at Miho. At five years old, she was slight and pretty, and, for the most part, she took after him. She was the only one of his four children who did; looking at her was somewhat unsettling. She had his features--and Mika's nose--and his serious expression. Her blonde hair served as a cruel reminder of Eiri's own childhood and of the teasing he had endured from most everyone around him.

Her eyes, though, were her mother's, and they were dark and soulful. Eiri was thankful for such small things.

On the past few Father's Days he had spent with her, she had been mostly silent. She would stay out of the way, playing with her toys, until he got around to feeding her. The two of them ignored one another for all intents and purposes. When Hibiki had shown up the previous year, things had changed. Hibiki had decided that, if Eiri-daddy wasn't going to pay attention to him, he wouldn't stop talking until Eiri-daddy went crazy and tried to kill him. Miho had eventually taken pity on Eiri and dragged Hibiki away, but only after Eiri had swallowed half a bottle of aspirin and tried to feed the boy beer. He had eventually taken the two of them to the park out of sheer desperation.

This year, he hoped the three kids would take a liking to Shuichi, thus leaving _him_ free to write while the singer kept the brats entertained. That didn't look like it would be a problem with Hibiki and Namiko, who were already delighted by Shuichi's bad impression of an avocado, but Miho was an entirely different story. She didn't really seem the Shuichi type.

Eiri decided, finally, that he should at least try to make nice with Miho, so he feigned a smile. "Good evening, Miho."

Miho shifted her gaze to meet his, but she did not respond with anything more than a slight nod of her head and a look.

Uh-oh. Eiri knew that look--Mika had used it on him a hundred thousand times and it seemed that all females could muster it up at a whim. It was the look that quite plainly said 'I don't like you right now and you'd be smart to just go away'. Seeing it on his five-year-old daughter was a bit disconcerting.

Looking down at the girl who shared his genes, Eiri decided to lose the fake smile. It didn't seem to work on her anyway.

"That's Shuichi," he said finally, jerking his head back toward Shuichi.

The little girl spared a glance at the singer and then set down her bag and nudged off her shoes. "I don't like him."

Eiri just shrugged. "Suit yourself."

"I don't like you, either."

To Eiri's surprise, he found that he took offense to that. He quelled the feeling carefully; the girl had every right to dislike him, after all. So, instead of getting angry, he frowned and stepped back from her.

"That's just too bad, isn't it?" he asked.

Miho's frown deepened and lines set deep into her face. She looked much older than she was, Eiri noticed. She hadn't gotten that from him. Without another word, she walked past him and into the living room, where she settled in on the couch. She had a book in her hands, which impressed Eiri. He hadn't realized that she knew how to read.

He turned away from Miho, toward where Shuichi was still entertaining Hibiki and Namiko. He watched them for a minute and then approached, putting a hand on Shuichi's head. The singer looked up at him and they exchanged a few silent messages, then Eiri retreated into his office. It was a good deal. He would get some work done and Shuichi would make sure none of the midgets tried to kill themselves.

Maybe this wouldn't be such a bad weekend after all.

**---to be continued---**


	5. The First Night

**Title:** Playing House

**Author:** Hawk Clowd

**Disclaimer: **Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

**Blood Type:** vodka. It's good for you, really.

**Warnings:** very few.

**Part:** five

**Author's Notes:** ... Yay for writing things during class!

---

The night didn't come soon enough for Eiri. Shuichi helped him put the three kids to bed, spreading out futons on the living room floor and telling the midgets a story while Eiri went to find more aspirin. Miho avoided Shuichi and the singer, obviously sensing the hostility, kept his distance as well. The highlight of the exercise came in the middle of Shuichi's second story, a short tale about a goat and a caterpillar, when Hibiki started coughing loudly. Eiri, who was rooting through the medicine cabinet, could hear the boy at the other end of the apartment. He wouldn't have cared overly much if it had been a regular sort of cough, but it wasn't. It was the sort that came from the bottom of the throat and ripped its way out of the mouth... not the good sort.

Eiri winced and hesitated before going back into the living room. "Now what?"

Shuichi looked up. "Nothing. Can you get some water out of the kitchen?"

Water. Right. He could do that. Eiri retreated into the kitchen and filled a glass from the tap (he assumed the water was safe to drink. He rarely drank water straight from the sink but he _did_ cook with it...). He had a thought as he came back and handed the cup down to Shuichi, who sat Hibiki up and started forcing the boy to drink.

"You're getting over a cold, aren't you?" Eiri asked the coughing boy shortly. He seemed to remember being told something along those lines.

It seemed his memory was accurate, at least on this count; Hibiki looked up at him and nodded. At least, Eiri assumed it was a nod--it was a bit hard to tell, what with Shuichi literally pouring water down the boy's throat. In any case, Eiri was almost positive it was a nod. That confirmed, he began searching for Hibiki's bag. He found it by the door and quickly found a bottle of cough medicine in there. He returned with it, skimmed the label, and poured out a bit of medicine.

As soon as he'd measured out the medicine, Namiko lunged forward and clung to his leg. This knocked him off balance... and he would up spilling nasty, grape-scented medicine all down his front. He fumed and tried very, _very_ hard not to lose his temper.

"You want something, Namiko?" he asked coldly.

"You thould read uth a thtory, too! After Thindou-thama ith done with hith one about the goat!" the little girl insisted. "My mommy thays you tell thtories to people all the time!"

"Not those kinds of thto--of stories," he snapped. "Get back into your futon."

Eiri could practically see the tears welling up in the little girl's eyes and he knew, long before the waterworks actually started, that he was going to have to buy more aspirin. As Namiko wailed, Hibiki started to cough again... and Shuichi shot him a Look. Eiri nearly left and bought himself a plane ticket to Siberia. Never again, he swore. Never. Again.

Miho rose wordlessly from her futon and took the medicine from Eiri's hands. The writer had all but forgotten she was there and so the action surprised him. She took a considerable amount of time reading the label on the medicine and then poured out a considerable amount of medicine. Then she stuck the stuff in Hibiki's mouth and used both hands to clamp the boy's mouth shut until she was sure he'd swallowed it. When she released him, he began to gag, so Shuichi went back to pouring water down his throat.

Miho seemed to consider Namiko for a moment. Once she apparently reached the conclusion that the situation was hopeless, she took her futon and dragged it into another room--Eiri's study. She came back for her doll and then retreated back, shutting the door behind her. Eiri heard a very distinct 'click' and guessed that she'd locked the door. Son of a... The writer sighed; he wouldn't be getting any more work done tonight.

Seemingly satisfied that Hibiki was all right, Shuichi pried Namiko off of Eiri's leg and started cooing at the girl, trying to calm her down. The wails eventually turned to whimpers and the river of tears subsided into a mere stream. Once that was accomplished, Shuichi looked up at Eiri, who was stunned by the note of displeasure in the singer's eyes.

"Do you want--"

"I think you should go to the bedroom," Shuichi said quickly, interrupting Eiri. His voice was laced with frost. "I'll put Hibiki and Namiko to bed."

Eiri didn't argue. He needed to change his shirt anyway; it smelled like cough medicine.

Shuichi came in several minutes later, clicking the door shut and stomping quietly over to Eiri, an amazing feat all on its own. He jabbed a finger at the writer's chest.

"What. Was. That?" the singer demanded. Eiri had the feeling that it was not a rhetorical question.

"What was what?" Eiri asked in return. He batted Shuichi's hand away.

"You know what I'm talking about," Shuichi said. "What was _that_? Out there?" He didn't leave Eiri any time to reply. "Namiko just wanted her daddy to spend time with them and tell a story! Granted, it was bad timing, but that's not the point! You just... just blew her off!" His voice never went above a hiss; Eiri was impressed by that.

"She didn't have to cry," Eiri snapped back. "It isn't like I _yelled_ at her."

Shuichi fumed. "You didn't have to," he said. "All you had to say was 'no'. She's just a little girl who wants her father--who she never sees--to like her, Yuki!"

"Maybe I _don't_ like her. And maybe I don't want her to like me, either."

"What is _wrong_ with you? You have four kids and three of them are staying the weekend to see _you_, but all you do is leave me with them and shut yourself away! It's all well and good that I play with them, but _you're_ their father. You could at least try and give a damn!" Shuichi's hands balled into fists. "Why do you do this every year?" he demanded. "Why do you even bother trying to--"

"Lower your voice before they hear you," Eiri scolded.

"Stop pretending to care if you really don't!" Shuichi finished.

Eiri scowled. "I care."

"Then why don't you act like it?" Shuichi asked. "Would telling a story _really_ have been so bad, Yuki?"

"I don't know any children's stories," Eiri said, as if that were an excuse.

"I don't know any either," Shuichi said with a sigh. "Why do you think I was making up all that crazy stuff about goats and lobsters and caterpillars? They don't care what you tell them about, Yuki, so long as you take the time to tell them something."

Eiri frowned. "All right, all right. I'll try to do better. Are you happy now?"

"Not really," Shuichi said honestly in a tone of voice that clearly said 'if that's the best you can do, I guess it's better than nothing'. Eiri had the feeling that was the best he would get out of Shuichi that night, so he retreated into the shower. When he emerged, Shuichi took his turn in the thing without complaint. This was a bit odd for the singer, who still had trouble grappling with the concept of western-style bathrooms, but Eiri didn't question it.

Eiri had picked up a book and was skimming the first chapter, trying to figure out if he wanted to read it or not, when there was a small, timid knock on the door. He bit back a sigh. "It's open," he offered.

The door creaked loudly as Namiko stepped inside. She approached the bed cautiously. "Daddy Eiri-than?"

Eiri hesitated; he wanted nothing more than to cart her back home to her mother, but that wouldn't do. He quelled the urge and set his book aside. "What is it?"

Apparently encouraged by his feigned interest, Namiko came closer. "Your house makes funny noithes and I can't thleep."

Hm. If he gave the girl a sleeping pill, he would probably kill her and, as a result, her mother would kill _him_. "So what should I do about it?"

She gave him a look that told him that she thought he was being stupid. He wanted to defend himself by playing the 'I don't like children and I don't normally have to deal with brats like you!' card, but he didn't. "My mommy things to me to help me thleep."

... Her mother did _what_? Eiri had to take a moment to translate. "She... sings to you?"

Namiko nodded that 'are you stupid?' nod again.

Eiri winced. "Well, Shuichi is a much better singer than I. Why don't you wait until he's out of the..." He paused as he realized that this was exactly what Shuichi had just been scolding him about. He sighed. "I don't sing."

"I could teach you a thong," Namiko offered.

"Er... no thanks." Eiri frowned. "What else does your mother do?"

Namiko shrugged. "The thinging uthually works."

Eiri sighed. "All right. Teach me a song."

Having been given permission, more or less, Namiko climbed up onto the bed next to Eiri and launched into a song that Eiri half-remembered from his own childhood, complete with hand motions. Shuichi came out of the bathroom halfway through (thankfully covered with at least a towel) and had to duck back into the bathroom to keep from laughing out loud.

Namiko did eventually fall asleep--after about an hour of singing--and so Eiri put her back to bed in the living room. Shuichi was standing in the doorway when he returned.

"You see," he began, "that was good. Well done."

"Shut up," Eiri mumbled. "What was I supposed to do? You were in the shower and I didn't want her to _cry_ again..."

Shuichi interrupted Eiri with a kiss on the forehead. "You did just fine."

**---to be continued---**


	6. Morning Comes

**Title:** Playing House

**Author:** Hawk Clowd

**Disclaimer: **Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

**Blood Type:** vodka. It's good for you, really.

**Warnings:** very few.

**Part:** six

**Author's Notes:** I have written one other story featuring young children (well, one young child) and I've noticed that, between that one and this story, there are a _lot_ of similarities between the two. Both featured a five year old. And a child who liked toy cars. And mysterious disappearing children... Although a glossed-over game of hide-and-seek is hardly as dramatic as what happened in that other story. Yeah. That's a tale for another... fandom. Yes. Anyway, I believe this is the longest chapter so far in this story, and that's actually all I wanted to say here. Eeeyup. So... See you in the next chapter!

---

Eiri and Shuichi woke the next morning to two little kids jumping on their bed--Hibiki and Namiko. Shuichi, who was really not much of a morning person, buried his head beneath his pillow and curled up. Eiri looked at the kids blearily.

"Daddy Eiri-than! Hibiki thays you made funny breakfast food for him latht time he wath here! Make it again!" Namiko ordered.

Eiri spared a glance at the clock by his bed. "It's only six-thirty," he complained. "Go watch cartoons or something."

"Noooo! Daddy, make the funny breakfast!" Hibiki howled.

Shuichi muttered something that may have been either a long string of profanities or a prayer to some sort of heathen deity. "Yuki, will you just go make them breakfast already before someone _dies_?"

Eiri shot the singer a scathing look even though Shuichi's head was still underneath the pillow. He liked mornings about as much as Shuichi did, but if the younger man actually expected him to get out of bed and cook just to get rid of the brats, he had another--

"Daddy!!!" the two children wailed in unison, pulling on the writer's arm.

Eiri resigned himself to one--just one--morning without sleep and slinked out of bed. Hibiki and Namiko cheered and followed him out. As Eiri shut the bedroom door behind the three of them, he heard Shuichi snore.

Jerk.

"Where's Miho?" Eiri asked, stifling a yawn.

"She's still in your other room," Hibiki replied dutifully.

Namiko nodded. "The one with the 'puter."

A sense of dread and foreboding suddenly seized Eiri's heart. His computer? And Miho... That, he felt, was indeed a deadly combination. He fought the urge to check in on his laptop and lost. Instead of going to the kitchen, he went straight to his study and tried the handle.

Locked. Damn it. Well, Eiri though, maybe she could be trusted to stay in the same room as his laptop. He hardly dared to hope--he only barely trusted _Shuichi_ in that room by himself, after all.

Hibiki started pulling on Eiri's arm again. "Daddy!"

"Right, I know. Funny breakfast." Eiri sighed and went to the kitchen, Hibiki and Namiko close on his heels. He rooted around in the refrigerator. Why had he made last year? Something he'd learned to make in America... Waffles? Yeah, that sounded about right. Shuichi had since broken his waffle iron, however, so that was out of the question... What did he have that would make up a non-traditional Japanese breakfast?

Meh. Eiri took out everything in his fridge and set it all on the counter, then went to cooking. It didn't take too long and, when it was ready, Eiri sent Hibiki and Namiko to wake Shuichi up. Revenge was a very, very sweet thing.

Shuichi wandered in soon after, yawning and trying to tie his robe shut while the two midgets were hanging off of his arms. When he saw the breakfast, he balked just slightly. Eiri knew why; Shuichi thought a that a meal that included anything aside from rice and _maybe_ some cereal was nauseating any time before eleven. Eiri gave the singer some credit for not turning back around and going back to bed.

"Someone has to wake up Miho," Shuichi said after taking a minute to recover from the thought of eating a 'funny' breakfast.

"OH!" Namiko cried, raising her hand and jumping from foot to foot. "I'll do it!"

Sic-ing Namiko on his eldest daughter was a very tempting idea, but Eiri decided not to do it. "I'll take care of it," he said. "Set the table, will you?"

Shuichi nodded and so Eiri left the kitchen, backtracking toward the study. The door was still locked, so Eiri knocked.

"Miho," he said after a moment of waiting. "Breakfast is on the table. If you want to eat, it's time to get up."

No answer. Eiri knocked again.

"Miho," he repeated, this time a bit louder.

The door swung open and Miho stood in the doorway, gazing straight ahead--at Eiri's knees, it seemed. He stepped aside.

"Good morning, Miho," he said stiffly.

The little blonde girl did not respond, opting instead to move past him toward the kitchen. Her doll was clutched tightly in her arms, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Eiri. That doll... It was a slight thing and rather fancy, but not the sort of doll he would have expected a little girl to have. It was made of porcelain and the features were carefully painted on the face. It was dressed in what looked to be a green kimono patterned with sakura blossoms. The hair, black and straight, had been done up into a tiny pair of twin buns, obviously done by Miho herself. That, strangely, was the only evidence that the doll belonged to a little girl. Eiri tried to think of where he'd seen a similar doll before and could not. Despite this, the doll seemed strange in this little girl's arms.

Miho sat as far away from Shuichi as possible. This, too, did not go unnoticed. Eiri thought it wise not to push the issue.

Hibiki practically dove into his plate of food. Miho picked at hers. Namiko was eyeing it warily and looking from her plate to Shuichi over and over again, as if waiting to see if the food was poisoned or not. She wasn't used to "funny" breakfasts, Eiri decided. Also, he realized belatedly, she was probably unaccustomed to eating with any utensils aside from chopsticks--which Shuichi had not set out. Eiri only owned three pairs as it was.

Eiri kicked Shuichi under the table. "Eat," he hissed.

Shuichi made a face and then sighed, picking up his fork and forcing himself to eat a few bites. Namiko followed suit, following Shuichi's example--facial expression and all.

Breakfast was uneventful. Namiko and Hibiki, already fast friends, were more than willing to watch cartoons for the rest of the morning. Miho sat on the couch, pretending she wasn't interested in the television but actually watching overtop her book. Shuichi cleaned the kitchen and then went ahead and enjoyed the cartoons with the rest of them. Eiri, after checking to make sure his study was mostly safe (it was), pretended to read a book of his own while actually watching everyone else watch cartoons. He was much better at faking it than Miho. That activity got boring after a while, though, so he went to his study to write.

A little after ten o'clock, the phone rang. Shuichi picked it up, had a brief argument with whoever was on the other end of the line, and then sidled up to Eiri.

"Yuki...?" he ventured. "Um..."

Eiri set down his book and took off his glasses, looking up at Shuichi. "Yes?"

"K-san wants me to come in to the studio today for some reason. He said there was a track we had to fix and that someone wanted to interview Bad Luck and..." Shuichi faltered. "Will you be all right if I go to work?"

"Sure," Eiri replied with a shrug. He had managed to live through Father's Day weekends in the past, before Shuichi had come along, and he could manage now, for at least a few hours, if need be. Shuichi didn't seem to be so confident, but he smiled and went with it.

"Okay," he murmured. "I'm going to get dressed then." With that, he mussed Eiri's hair and went off to the bedroom.

As soon as Shuichi was out of the study, Hibiki and Namiko practically pounced on Eiri, begging the writer to play with them. It didn't take long for Eiri to grow irritated with them, and soon his mind raced for possible ways to keep them from bothering him while he could still act like 'the good father'. After a moment of thought, he found one.

"Do you want to play hide-and-seek?" Eiri asked. "That's when you guys hide and I count to some big number and then come looking for you. Okay?"

The two midgets squealed in delight.

"All right. You guys hide and I'll count to a thousand or something and start looking for you," he promised. "One... two..."

Hibiki and Namiko were off like twin shots, running around the apartment looking for hiding places. After a moment, Eiri shut the study door. Well. That had certainly been easy.

Eiri typed quickly for about twenty minutes or so before he heard the front door click shut. Shuichi had left, Eiri assumed. He thought nothing of it... at least, not until Shuichi called out a loud goodbye and actually _did_ leave a few minutes later.

Eiri's fingers froze on the keyboard. No. It had to be some kind of joke; no child in their right mind would leave the apartment during a game of hide-and-seek, _especially_ not in a strange apartment complex, right? Eiri grimaced. Nah, these were _his_ kids, and that meant they were messed up enough to do just about anything.

Well, there would most certainly be a bit of looking to be done. Eiri saved his document (if nothing else, he could turn a few new chapters in to Mizuki before he was murdered by one of his old bed-mates), got up, and began to search the apartment.

Miho was situated on the couch, doll in her arms and a book in her hands. Her cheeks were flushed, but Eiri thought nothing of it. Okay. One midget accounted for.

Hibiki was relatively easy to find--the boy was hiding behind a potted plant Eiri had not remembered owning. Hibiki, displeased at being found, practically told Eiri where to find Namiko--under the covers of Eiri and Shuichi's bed. She was actually napping when he found her and Eiri almost didn't want to wake her up. He did, though, and, confident that the door thing had been a fluke, he led the midgets into the kitchen, where he put some tea on. He needed it for his nerves and he hoped it would calm the children down. Wishful thinking.

Shortly before the tea was ready, Miho wandered in. When it actually _was_ ready, she set down her doll and poured out the tea herself. Eiri briefly admired her technique--although she (thankfully) did not perform a full tea ceremony, her mannerisms and actions made it obvious that she was either learning the process or had already mastered it. It was impressive in it's own way, especially in a girl so small--although Eiri really wasn't sure he was one to judge, as he'd never bothered to learn all the intricacies of the ceremony himself.

Hibiki and Namiko both gulped their tea down and then complained that their tongues were burnt. Eiri expertly ignored them. Miho just sat back, sipped her tea, and ignored the lot of them.

As Eiri nursed his own tea and tried to keep calm, he watched his eldest daughter carefully. She was strange, he thought. Quiet, but not very shy. Withdrawn, but bold. An enigma all in herself. But wasn't she too young to be an enigma? Eiri half wanted to believe that. Then what? She never did--

"Daddy Eiri-than?" Namiko questioned. She had left the table and moved to tug on Eiri's sleeve, the fingers of her free hand in her mouth.

Eiri sighed. "Yes?"

"Will you do my hair fo' me?" she asked. "Thindou-thama promithed to do it, but he had to leave and I don't know how to--"

"I'm not very good with hair," Eiri interrupted. Then, as the girl's face began to fall, he had a thought. "Why not ask Miho to do it? She's very good at doing hair."

If Namiko was surprised by that statement, Miho was shocked. The five-year-old nearly choked on her tea. She stared at Eiri in mute wonder. It was a much better look for her than the usual open resentment and dislike, Eiri thought.

Namiko, after she managed to grow on the idea, turned to Miho. "Will _you_ do my hair for me?"

Miho hesitated, glancing from Namiko to Eiri and back again. She seemed unsure of what the proper course of action would be. "Um... Yes. All right."

Namiko clapped delightedly. "Okay! I'll get my things!"

Miho shot Eiri one last baffled look and then went to join Namiko in the living room. As the writer watched his two daughters leave, he wondered if offering up Miho had been a good idea or a bad one. Ah, well; he'd find out eventually.

Hibiki made a little 'grr' noise, which surprised Eiri. The writer turned back around to look at the boy with a cautious look. Was his son a spirit or a werewolf or something? Well, if he was, he certainly didn't get that from _Eiri's_ side of the family. Crazy boy.

"They're doing _girl_ stuff," Hibiki said finally, voice tinted with obvious distaste. "_We_ should do _guy_ stuff."

Eiri bit back the tiniest of smiles. Guy stuff? The only 'guy stuff' that he could think of involved Tatsuha, beer, and lots of dirty stories. Now, while drinking beer and swapping stories was normally entertaining, Eiri did not really think it would be quite as much fun with three-year-old Hibiki. Ai, the boy's mother, would probably murder Eiri for it if she found out about it.

"Like what?" Eiri asked, amused and half-willing to humor the brat.

"Um..." Hibiki took a long moment to think on it. "We could play with trucks," he offered. "I have some."

Eiri decided not to point out that some girls--Mika, for instance--played with toy cars and trucks. He also tried not to balk at the idea. Play with trucks? Damn. Stupid Shuichi and his 'you're a bad father' talk... Whatever. Trucks. He could do that. He shrugged his agreement and with Hibiki into the living room.

Hibiki practically dumped his backpack onto the floor. Toy trucks and cars of various shapes, sizes, and colors spilled out and Eiri looked at them mournfully, longing for the days when _his_ father used to waste children's playtime by lecturing about how, in his day, he played with sticks and didn't have all those fancy plastic toys.

"Okay," Hibiki said at last. "I'll be _this_ truck," he pulled a big yellow car out of the chaotic mess, "and you can be the rest of 'em. My truck is a _super_ truck, so you can do all sorts of things and my truck will save the day with its super awesome powers!"

Whoa, hold on. That didn't sound fair. Besides, trucks couldn't _have_ super powers, nor, to Eiri's knowledge, did trucks ever save the day. Ran things over, yes, and have their engines die at the worst possible times, of course. But save fellow automobiles from fates worse than death? Why no, they did _not_ do that.

Eiri sighed and set logic aside, for the time being, and the game began.

**---to be continued---**


	7. Day Out

**Title:** Playing House

**Author:** Hawk Clowd

**Disclaimer: **Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

**Blood Type:** vodka. It's good for you, really.

**Warnings:** very few.

**Part:** seven

**Author's Notes:** This chapter took me forever to write and I'm really not sure why. Okay, not true. I had the first half written a long time ago and have had the last bit written out on paper for almost the same length of time. There was scene transition with which I was having loads and loads of problems! In the end, Joan really played a huge part in helping me get through that scene in a way that wasn't quite melodramatic and wasn't quite a complete cop out, either. So, really, I owe her a great deal, so far as this chapter is concerned. Without her, this would have been delayed for at least another month. Maybe more. Anyway... Enjoy!

---

Eiri didn't believe in naptime, and so, around one o'clock, he decided it was about time he took Miho, Hibiki, and Namiko out for the afternoon. He made sure the three children were dressed, checked the weather, and led the midgets out the door toward the elevator.

The heat wave was still hitting Tokyo in force, so, adding that to the normal July temperatures, the parking garage was horribly stifling... but better than the inside of the car. Eiri nearly choked when he stuck his head into the black cabriolet. Yuck. He rolled down the windows and turned on the car's air conditioning full blast, hoping the combined forces would alleviate the bad in-car feeling. That done, he helped Hibiki and Namiko into the backseat of the car and opened the passenger door for Miho. She climbed in and, after seeming to consider the scenario, buckled her seatbelt. Oh, so she _remembered_ Eiri's driving deftness. Wonderful.

The weather was better outside, but not by much. As soon as the stifling feeling was out of the car, Eiri rolled up the windows and turned the air down a touch. Now what? Eiri didn't know where he was going; his original plan had been to take the brats to the park and let them tire themselves out for a while, but it was far too warm for that. So... what? Most of the indoor places around here were air-conditioned, but everyone trying to escape the heat would be there and Eiri tried to avoid large groups of people whenever possible--especially on Father's Day weekend. The last thing he needed was another tabloid splash page.

Splash. Hm.

An idea struck him.

"Hibiki and Miho, do you know how to swim?" Eiri asked.

Miho nodded and Hibiki set off into a long story about how his mother's friend, Hoto-san, had been teaching him. Eiri took that to be a 'yes'. Namiko just pouted. The fact that she'd been left out of that question had obviously not escaped her.

Eiri considered her through the rearview mirror. "Don't worry. I'm not leaving you out of this," he assured her. "I was thinking about taking you three to Kirin--the sports club. They have pools there." That was the only indoor, semi-public pool house he could think of that allowed children under the age of three swim--or at least had separate pools for those children under three. Since it wasn't completely open to the public, it wouldn't be crowded, which Eiri liked. He would have to buy a membership for himself and the brats, but it wasn't as though he couldn't afford it.

"I don't know how to thwim," Namiko said, lip protruding. Eiri could practically see her fingers creeping up to her mouth.

"You don't have to know how," Eiri said, somewhat crossly. "They have little pools."

Namiko popped on her fingers and sucked on them. "But I wanna know how."

Eiri hesitated and decided to try to be a parent for once in his life. "Do you want me to try and teach you?" he offered. He'd taught Tatsuha how to swim, once upon a time, so it seemed logical that he could do the same for Namiko.

Namiko's face brightened and she pulled her fingers out of her mouth with a small 'pop' noise. "Will you rea'y?" she asked. "I wanna learn how to thwim!"

Eiri shrugged. "Sure." He set course toward Ginza. "We'll go to the pool."

"We don't have swimsuits," Miho pointed out.

Was she _trying_ to spoil his one and only attempt at being a decent parent? He shot her a look. "So we'll go shopping first," he said. "I'll buy all of you new suits."

Ginza was busy this time of day, as usual. Eiri, who did not particularly like to shop even under normal conditions, quickly discovered that shopping with children was even worse. Hibiki and Namiko were trying to tear him in two while Miho plodded along in front of them. Choosing decent suits wasn't very hard, especially not for Miho, who seemed to know exactly what she wanted--a purple one-piece. Namiko tried on at least twenty suits before she settled on a pink one with a little half-skirt. Hibiki was nowhere near as fussy, as he simply wanted a suit that would look just like Eiri's. Eiri hadn't really been intending to buy a suit for himself, but he didn't object. Finding a suit that fit him that _also_ had a smaller version to fit Hibiki took some work, but they eventually found blue suits were enough alike to make Hibiki happy. Eiri paid for the suits and the four of them wore them out of the store, under their clothes.

The swim club was not far away, much to Eiri's relief, and both Hibiki and Miho had shed their unnecessary clothing and rushed into the pool even before Eiri could finish paying for their memberships. Namiko started after them, but Eiri stopped her with a restraining hand. If the girl drowned, people might think he had done it on purpose.

Getting a membership for himself was more trouble than it was worth, Eiri thought, and other members of the club were whispering about him even as he and Namiko wandered into the pool house. Eiri put his extra things away in a locker before he did anything else, then looked around for Miho and Hibiki. The two children were splashing around in one of the shallower pools. That was good.

The entire place was permeated with the sick smell of chlorine, which made Eiri almost nauseous, but none of the children in the place seemed to mind... nor did many of the adults. Eiri made a mental note to discover the secret to ignoring the chlorine smell.

Miho and Hibiki went about their own business in the other pool while Eiri attempted to teach Namiko how to swim. It was a task probably better suited for someone Namiko was more secure with, but Eiri had offered and so he would have to do. The smell of the chlorine faded after a while but, after a while, he agreed to buy the three children ice cream and, when they returned to the pool house, the smell hit him full force and he felt himself growing light-headed. He was relieved when Hibiki came up to him and complained about a sudden cramp in his side, probably due to the ice cream. Complained meant that they could leave this wretched place filled with sticky lounge chairs and the intoxicating smell of chlorine. Namiko had managed to get the hang of dog-paddling by then and could, at least, tread water and swim a few feet before she fell under the water and started to choke, but she claimed that her throat was hoarse from swallowing water and was ready to go as well. Miho, true to form, said nothing on the matter but made no argument when Eiri said it was time to go. One of the women in the pool house agreed to help Miho and Namiko into their dry clothes while Eiri dealt with Hibiki in the pool's dirty locker room. Half an hour after having dragged the children out of the pool and nearly three hours after arriving, the four of them left the pool house.

After the pool, Eiri called home to the apartment to find out if Shuichi was there (he wasn't) and then, for lack of anything better to do, took the three midgets to the arcade. When they had finally spent all of his loose change, he took them back to the apartment and found something "suitable" for them to watch while he retreated to his office and tried to work. This, of course, did not go as he had planned; as willing as Miho was to sit quiet and pretend to read, the two other children were not satisfied with this plan and felt the need to heckle Eiri non-stop.

Eiri put up with this for about an hour before he got frustrated and gave up. It was nearly six-thirty anyway, and Shuichi still was not back. So Eiri went for the phone again, planted Hibiki and Namiko on the couch, and dialed Shuichi's cell. He heard the familiar sound of Shuichi's ring tone over in the bedroom and fought the urge to curse. Hibiki and Namiko began to giggle, chatter, and squeal. Fuck. Eiri grit his teeth and called the NG studio, a number he had put on speed dial when he had realized Shuichi expected him to call about silly things like dinner, forgotten cell phones, and small floods due to bursting water pipes. Eiri had to shush the two noisy children several times before he could tell the administrative desk who he was, who he wanted to speak to, and why.

Instead of hold music, NG played a repetitive message: 'Thank you for calling NG Studios. Your call is being redirected. Please stay on the line. Thank you for calling...' The message played eight and a half times before Shuichi finally picked up.

"Yuki?" he asked, voice laced with obvious surprise. He sounded tired, Eiri thought. "Is everything all right?"

The two noisy children started to talk and squirm again, so Eiri whirled around. "Stay on the couch and stay quiet," he ordered, covering the phone mouthpiece with one hand. He whirled back.

"Yuki?" Shuichi was saying again.

"Everything's fine," Eiri said quickly. He tried to ignore the relieved sigh he heard from Shuichi's end of the line. "The brats wanted to know if you'd be back for dinner," he half-lied. He twisted his upper-body and frowned at Hibiki and Namiko, who had obeyed him in not moving off the couch but were raising the volume of their voices as Eiri spoke. He turned back, rubbing his head. He could vaguely hear Shuichi going "what?"

He tried again.

"Will you be..."

"What?"

Eiri's fingers pressed against his forehead and he shut his eyes. Fucking _hell_. "Will you be home for dinner?"

"What? Yuki, you must be on a bad line or something! I can't hear you!"

God _damn_ it. Eiri started to try again and, suddenly, there was quiet. It felt almost as though a million Shuichis had all whined at once and had been suddenly silenced. Eiri opened his eyes and dared to look over at the children on the couch. It seemed that Miho had taken a pillow and was expertly suffocating the other two with it. With a sharp pain, Eiri realized that he would eventually have to take the pillow away from Miho. It was a shame, really.

"Yuki?" Shuichi was asking. "Yuki? Is everything okay?"

"Fine," Eiri answered shortly. "Are you nearly done with whatever you're doing at NG?"

Shuichi made an 'mmm'-ing sound before he answered. "I don't know. Probably not. Have you guys eaten yet?"

"Not yet."

"Feed them, Yuki," Shuichi scolded. "I'll go out with Hiro when we're done and I'll see you tonight, okay?"

Eiri's mind rebelled. Shuichi expected him to take care of three brats for the rest of the day? His brain screamed at him, but his lips calmly formed and sounded the word "Sure."

Shuichi laughed and there was the sound of someone mumbling in the background, so he went on quickly. "I've got to go! Love you, Yuki! Bye!"

"Bye."

As they hung up, Eiri turned, took the pillow away from Miho, made sure the giggling brats were all right, and then went to face the daunting task of feeding three children.

**---to be continued---**


	8. The Truth About Miho

**Title:** Playing House

**Author:** Hawk Clowd

**Disclaimer: **Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

**Blood Type:** vodka. It's good for you, really.

**Warnings:** very few.

**Part:** eight

**Author's Notes:** many of the following scenes were written back in October, so this chapter was just a matter of connecting the dots, which was harder than I'd expected.

-

Shuichi arrived home several hours later, just in time to remind Eiri that children, unlike adults, could not put themselves to bed. So while Eiri tried to figure out how to put Hibiki and Namiko to bed without killing them, Shuichi took a shower and then returned to tell the children stories. He somehow convinced Eiri to sit down and make one up for them as well, although Shuichi had to revise the ending - which Eiri had made dark and somewhat gloomy from force of habit alone - so that Hibiki and Namiko, at least, would not have nightmares. Miho, once again, seemed to prefer the solitude and quiet of the book she pretended to read to the stories Shuichi and Eiri attempted to make up.

Before he and Shuichi left for the sanctuary of their bedroom, Eiri even remembered to give Hibiki the medicine left by his mother. And since Namiko joined with a coughing fit, he gave her some as well. He did not see anything wrong with that, as the bottle had no warning against giving the medicine to anyone other than the person for whom it was intended and it at least kept Namiko from coughing. Miho decided to sleep in Eiri's office once again and Shuichi forbade Eiri to argue, claiming that it would do the writer no good anyway.

When they did finally reach the bedroom, Shuichi lingered by the door and, after a moment of thought, locked it. He pounced Eiri from behind, pushing the writer backward onto the bed. Eiri made a slight grunting noise, twisted to grab Shuichi's arms, and positioned them so that the singer's elbows weren't digging into his hips.

"Hello there" Shuichi said with a quiet giggle.

Eiri grunted a brusque reply.

Shuichi grinned. "You're sexy when you're playing house, did you know that" he asked in a teasing voice.

"I'm always sexy" Eiri replied.

Shuichi stifled a laugh and then pressed his lips against Eiri's neck in a chaste kiss. "Did you guys have a lot of fun today"

"No" Eiri grumped. Shuichi shot him a look and Eiri quickly corrected his statement. "It was all right" he said quietly. "I'm not used to that sot of thing; it made me tired."

"Too tired for me" Shuichi asked teasingly as his fingers crept down Eiri's sides, toward the top of the writer's pants. The touches tickled and Eiri squirmed just slightly.

"Yes" Eiri said stubbornly. He lifted Shuichi's hands away, pushed the singer off, and rolled onto his stomach, pretending to be settling down into sleep.

Shuichi, of course, protested. "Yuki" he exclaimed.

Eiri rolled over again and slapped a hand over Shuichi's mouth. "Quiet" he hissed.

"Mmmph" Shuichi mumbled under Eiri's hand. Eiri removed his hand and Shuichi repeated himself. "Sorry" he stage-whispered.

"Just keep quiet" Eiri scolded.

"Okay, okay..." Shuichi said, rolling his eyes.

Eiri sat up slightly, using his elbow to prop up his upper body, and flicked the end of Shuichi's arm with the tip of his finger. "Don't give me that" he scolded.

"Give you what" Shuichi challenged with a faux-innocent smile. He eeped when Eiri pulled him away and then pushed him down flat on the bed.

"Shush" Eiri chastised gently as he began to ease Shuichi out of his shirt. "Were all of those lessons on how to keep quiet a waste of time"

Shuichi shook his head quickly, clamping his mouth shut and sucking in a breath through his teeth as Eiri tweaked an overly sensitive patch of skin on the younger man's hip. He pet Eiri's hair as the writer slowly moved up the singer's body. Eiri's hands wandered. He kept his balance with the lower part of his right arm, twisting and weaving strands of Shuichi's hair around his fingers as he leaned over the singer; his left hand traced the line of Shuichi's body and then slipped in the front of the loose pants the singer wore. Shuichi gasped at the touches and Eiri stifled the sound by pressing his lips to Shuichi's.

Hardly a moment later, Shuichi jerked away. "Did you hear that" he asked in a whisper.

"I didn't hear anything" Eiri muttered, but, when he listened, he did. From out in the hallway came the tiny sound of footsteps.

The floor creaked and Shuichi grabbed onto Eiri's arm, his fingers squeezing tightly. "I heard it again" he whispered anxiously.

Eiri sighed and gently eased his arms out of Shuichi's grasp, rubbing at the marks Shuichi's handholds had made against his skin. "Calm down" he scolded. "One of the brats probably just got up for a drink."

"I don't know..." Shuichi began. His voice trailed off as the footsteps got quieter. They both strained to listen and, after a moment, heard the front door close. Eiri and Shuichi were both still for a moment, then they got out of bed and went for the door. Eiri got there first and he unlocked it hastily. Shuichi shifted from foot to foot anxiously as he waited for the door to open, then rushed out into the hall ahead of Eiri. The blond, of course, was not far behind.

A quick search of the apartment verified that nothing important was missing or disrupted, the front door was unlocked, and Hibiki and Namiko were sleeping peacefully on the living room floor.

Miho, however, was nowhere to be found. Her sleeping bag lay discarded on the floor in front of Eiri's desk and her shoes were not at the front door where she had left them.

Shuichi immediately flew into a panic. Eiri contained himself slightly better, rationalizing that the girl had simply gone out into the hall for something and would be back shortly, but he felt a knot of... something building and twisting in his gut.

"We have to find her" Shuichi cried in a loud whisper. He was wringing his hands and looking about anxiously, as though Miho would show up simply because he wished her to. Eiri could not figure out why the singer was worrying about her so much; it was not as though she was _his_ daughter.

Eiri frowned and tried to hush the younger man. "Quiet down" he hissed. When Shuichi ignored him, he raised his voice. "Shut up"

It took several moments, but Shuichi did stop panicking visibly, although Eiri could tell simply by the way the singer's eyes darted about that the younger man was on the verge of exploding. As if to add to Eiri's frustration, the telltale sounds of shifting reached his ears from the two sleeping bags laid out on the floor nearby.

"Daddy Eiri-than" a little voice inquired blearily into the dark.

Eiri fought the urge to curse. "Go back to sleep, Namiko" he said.

"I can't" Namiko protested, sitting up in her sleeping bag and rubbing at her eyes.

Hibiki, of course, then felt the need to join in. "What's going on" he asked sleepily. He rolled over onto his back and then sat up as well, blinking lazily around the room. "S'it morning already"

"No. Go back to sleep."

Shuichi was getting anxious again, Eiri could tell. "Yuki" the singer began in a whisper"what are we going to _do_"

The two children heard the fretful whisper and looked at each other. They murmured at one another for a moment and Eiri's heart sank. Oh no. When children spoke among themselves, the outcome was rarely good. He prepared himself for the blow.

Namiko, it seemed, had been deigned the spokesperson. "Did you looth Miho-chan" she asked in her lisping drawl. Hibiki's thumb searched for this mouth and Eiri glared at them both in the semi-darkness.

"No" he replied, trying desperately not to lose his temper. "Go back to bed."

Shuichi started to tug on his arm. "Yuki" he said, again and again. "Yuki"

"Shut up" Eiri snapped, jerking his arm out of Shuichi's grasp. Shuichi jumped in alarm, staring at Eiri with a hurt look on his face, and the two children made a noise of exclamation. Namiko started to cry and Hibiki looked to be on the verge of tears himself. Silently, Eiri wished he had a gun pressed to his temple. At that moment, he would have gladly pulled the trigger.

The scene went on like that for a few moments before Eiri gave up and rubbed his forehead. He needed more painkillers and he needed them badly. "I'm sorry" he apologized gruffly. It seemed to be the best thing to do, seeing as how nothing else was helping the situation.

Biting his lower lip, Shuichi nodded and Eiri knew that the singer understood.

Hibiki and Namiko, however, continued to wail in the center of the living room, so the relief that the two lovers felt was short-lived. Remembering the task at hand, Shuichi started to panic all over again, grabbed Eiri's arm, and pulled the writer into the hallway that led to their bedroom. It was, thankfully, far enough away that the remaining two children would not be able to hear them over their tears.

"Yuki" Shuichi hissed, tightening his grip. "What are we going to do"

"I'll tell you" Eiri said, not bothering to pry the singer off him. The brat would only latch back on anyway, he knew, and he had already lashed out at him once already. It was somewhat nice, besides. "There's a bottle of window cleaner in the kitchen, somewhere. You make them something to eat and I'll slip the cleaner in there. Between your cooking and the poison, they'll stop being a problem."

"What" Shuichi cried. "Yuki! We can't do that"

"You're right" Eiri admitted grudgingly. "Not even they could possibly be dumb enough to eat your cooking."

"Yuki"

Eiri sighed. "Never mind" he said quietly. "You go put Hibiki and Namiko back to bed. In the living room, in our room... I don't care."

"But..."

"Be an adult for once and do it" Eiri interrupted shortly. "I'll go out and look for Miho; she can't be that far away and she's more likely to listen to me than you."

Shuichi looked as though he wanted to argue, but he said nothing. Instead, he set his jaw and, after he took a moment to gather his composure, let go of Eiri's arm, turned, and went back to the living room to deal with Hibiki and Namiko. Once the noise died down a little bit, Shuichi returned, holding a still crying Namiko in one arm and leading a sniffling Hibiki by the hand. He paused by Eiri as they passed and gave the writer a quick kiss. That done, he brought the two children into the bedroom. When the door shut, Eiri moved to the door, grabbed his shoes and keys, and began the search for his eldest daughter.

He had intended to drive and look for her that way first, but a sudden thought made him change his mind. As a child, Eiri himself had attempted to run away from home on several occasions, mostly for silly reasons. When he was just toying with the idea, he often would get to the end of the road and then turn back when no one came out to stop him. On the few occasions when he had been serious, however, he had never been able to decide where to go and had usually ended up crying alone somewhere near to the house, where he was sure no one would look for him. Oftentimes no one had even noticed he was gone. Later in life, Eiri had used that same tactic - simply going somewhere where he would not be noticed - whenever he was troubled by something or when he simply wanted to think. Eiri knew that he had not had the most typical of childhoods, no matter how he looked at it, but maybe, just maybe...

Eiri looked in the hallway first, then checked the elevator. When neither of those forfeited any results, he went down the stairs, all the way to the parking garage. Then, instead of going into the garage, he turned toward the front door of the building. Outside, he circled the property, squinting in the semi-dark. He realized he should have brought a flashlight and silently chastised himself for neglecting to think of that sooner.

Miho was sitting on the stairs just outside the walk-in entrance to the parking garage when Eiri finally found her. She was holding her doll close to her and stroking its hair with one hand. She looked...

Eiri cleared his throat as he approached in order to let her know that he was there. Miho flinched, but she did not try to move away. Eiri stepped forward and took a seat on the step next to her. The two sat there, side by side, in silence.

After a long while, Eiri sighed. "Leaving the apartment by yourself is dangerous" he murmured. "The neighborhood here is a good one, but it's still not safe enough for a little girl to wander around all by herself, even if she doesn't go very far."

Miho pulled her doll closer and Eiri saw her head droop a little, almost as though she was trying to hide her face. The girl's grip on her doll tightened.

Eiri didn't know what to do. Children had never made any sense to him, much less children like Miho. They were far too complicated. Had it been Tatsuha, five years old and sitting alone, Eiri - who would have been about eleven, then - would probably have gone to fetch Mika. (Now, of course, if Tatsuha had been sitting alone at his current age, Eiri probably would have offered him a cigarette and taken him to a bar.)

Had Shuichi been the one sitting there, Eiri would have insulted him, probably, or he would have sat there until the singer apologized for something he had not done. That, he decided quickly, would not work with Miho. Afterward, Shuichi also would have required some sort of physical contact - a hug, a quick touch on the shoulder, a head pet... However, Eiri was rather uncomfortable with the idea of establishing such a connection with his estranged daughter.

So what if it had been him? Eiri took a moment to imagine himself, sad and alone, on the steps and found it a far too familiar feeling. What would _he_ want? Well, he would not have wanted anyone to see him, for one, but there was no helping that now. After being caught, though, then he probably would have wanted the person in question to talk - just talk - about something neither of them really cared about until he or she could gauge enough from his reactions to figure out what was wrong. He would have wanted someone to at least try to understand.

Fucking hell. He _would_ have to be the difficult one.

"The pool was nice today" he tried tentatively. Ugh. Weak. "It smelled a great deal of chlorine, but I suppose even that is better then the alternative."

Nothing.

"Namiko was beginning to get the hang of swimming" he went on, feeling more awkward by the second. "Maybe next year she'll be able to swim with you and Hibiki. She'd like that, and she'd be safe doing it, even if she wasn't as good a swimmer. You would make sure she didn't get in over her head, I think."

The light from a nearby street lamp was dim, but Eiri could nonetheless see Miho's eyes mist over, just a touch.

Eiri gave up trying to be tactful. What was the point"It's all right if you don't like me" he said decisively. "I'm a pretty shitty father, after all. I'm not as sure I'm all right with you hating Shindou-san, however. He never once did anything to make you..." Eiri's voice trailed off as he noticed Miho was crying. He cursed silently. _Now_ what?

He winced and then, grudgingly, reached to touch her shoulder. "Miho..."

"Stop it" she yelled, jumping to her feet and away from him. Tears ran down her cheeks and her grip on her doll was so tight that her knuckles were white. "I hate this! I hate it here and I hate you and I want to go home"

Eiri didn't move or say a word.

"It's all your fault" she cried as she broke down completely. She sobbed into her hands and wavered on her feet. After a moment's hesitation, Eiri reached out and eased her back down into a sitting position on the step. She continued to speak, the whole time, through the sobs that made her entire body shake. It was hard to understand her, but Eiri tried. And slowly, very slowly, the story came out.

Miho had started school that year and the kids there teased her because her skin was light and her hair was blonde. She told Eiri how her parents favored her half-sister and brothers and how her mother's husband often came home drunk and, when her mother did _not_ lock him out, how they would argue and how Eiri's name was always mentioned. She went so far as to guess just how much her mother resented the writer for having spoiled her marriage. Miho told Eiri that her mother had taught her about homosexuality (which Miho called man-love), how it was a terrible, fearful thing, and how, since Eiri and Shuichi were in a homosexual relationship, Miho was convinced that Eiri didn't like _any_ girls - including his own daughters. Even his poor attempts at playing with Namiko had confused her and then made her jealous, it seemed. Every sentence was punctuated with a sob and the phrase 'it's all your fault'.

Once she finished ranting and telling Eiri her reasons for everything, she simply repeated the words 'I hate you' over and over again, sobbing all the while. It all made Eiri feel rather numb inside. He wasn't sure how to feel about this.

When Miho's sobs became more forced and stuttered, Eiri still did not know what to do. He crossed his arms, almost hugging them to himself, and tried to ignore the empty, hollow feeling of uselessness that came with watching someone cry and knowing there was nothing in his power he could do to help. He was quiet for a long while as he listened to her forced, tearless sobs.

He sighed. "I'm sorry."

The words seemed to surprise the girl; in truth, they surprised _him_. She glanced up at him and wiped her eyes with the back of one hand. "Wh... what"

"I'm sorry" Eiri said again as he settled back and tilted his head up so that he was staring at the underside of the door ledge. "I'm sorry that the children at your school don't understand you and that they make fun of you. I'm also sorry that your stepfather resents you for something over which you've never had any control. And you're right to hate me, I suppose - I'm not, for the most part, a nice person. I never wanted to have children. You and the other two were just..." Eiri shook his head and did not bother to complete that thought. "My fathering you has given you nothing but bad things, and I apologize."

Miho nodded her head. She was silent.

"I'm a terrible father" Eiri went on. "I spend three days a year with my children and, even then, I spend more time ignoring them then anything else. I know how old you all are, but I don't know when you celebrate your birthdays or anything else. I know nothing about you three and I have never tried to find out." Eiri folded his hands, sitting up straight once again. "And so I'm sorry."

Miho was silent for some time. "My birthday is on March sixteenth" she finally told him in a quiet voice.

Eiri looked at her with a vague sense of surprise. He had almost known that. He had known that _one_ of his children was born in March, at least.

Miho started to pet the doll's hair again. "My mom bought me this doll with money you sent her" she murmured. "And she told me that that's how I was s'posed to look - how I'd have looked if you weren't my father." Miho paused. "She has beautiful hair."

Eiri hesitated and then dared to reach over and take a bit of Miho's hair between his fingers. "I like yours better" he told her softly.

"All the kids at school tease me because my mom and stepfather and my sister and my brothers are all Japanese and I'm not." She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "They call me mixed."

Eiri frowned. That, at least, was a familiar problem. "You're Japanese, not mixed" he argued. "Both of my parents were Japanese and so, I assume, were your mother's." He took his hand away. "I don't know why your hair - or my own - is this color. It runs through my family and shows up every so often." He decided not to tell the girl that many of his blond ancestors had been killed, according the stories his father had once told him as a little boy. "That only makes it harder to explain, I suppose."

"That's the problem" she exclaimed. "No one wants to be my friend and everyone teases me and makes fun and... And I'm sick of it! I wish you weren't my father! It's all your fault! People hate me because of you"

"They're scared of you" Eiri corrected"because you're different."

"How would _you_ know"

He didn't, really. That was what he'd been told countless times as a child and had been told to believe, even on the days when he came home with a black eye or a split lip. Eiri did not admit that, however. He quirked an eyebrow. "I was little once too, you know."

"Oh." Miho said. She stared down at her doll again. "So how'd you get them to stop"

Eiri hesitated. For some reason, he really didn't think the truthful response - 'I ran away to America' - would be a satisfactory answer. "They didn't stop" he told the girl honestly. "They teased me until I left the school and I had no way to stop them. I used to get into fights over it all." He leaned back slightly, staring up at the sky. "They tease because they understand it. It's all right for a foreigner to look foreign, but not for a native Japanese person to look this way. That's how they think."

Miho was quiet.

Thinking it over, Eiri paused. "People still treat me differently" he admitted. "Partially because of the way I look."

Miho sniffed. "I don't want to be different."

"You can't change what you are - or what other people think" Eiri told her, echoing words his sister had once said to him. "You can only accept it."

"But..."

"It's hard" Eiri interrupted. "I know that."

Miho sighed. "I wish I looked like my doll."

Eiri frowned and reached over, taking the doll from Miho's hands and turning it over, examining it. He shrugged and handed it back. "I don't like it very much. Her kimono is nice, but she herself leaves something to be desired."

A puzzled look passed over Miho's face, but she said nothing. She shifted awkwardly. "I don't want to stay here."

"That's fine" Eiri said after a moment. "If you would like, I'll call your mother and she can come pick you up. I'm not going to make you stay here if you don't want to."

"You don't want me to stay."

"That's not what I said" Eiri argued.

"But it's what you meant" Miho said dejectedly.

Eiri frowned and put a hand on Miho's head, turning her gently to look at him. "That's not what I said" he repeated. "Look. I'm not going to force you into anything. If you want to stay, that's fine. If you want to go, that's fine, too."

"You don't care"

Ack. That wasn't it at all. Jeez. He was a writer, for fuck's sake. Why couldn't he put his answer into the right words? It wasn't at all fair.

"That's not it either" Eiri said. "I don't know how to say what I mean, Miho; I'm not very good at that sort of thing. I realize I'm an awful father, but... Well, if it makes a difference at all, I'm trying." Shuichi was _making_ him try harder to be a decent father, really, but she didn't need to know that.

She gave him a look that was clearly one of disbelief. "Are you"

"I'm trying" Eiri repeated. "It's better than nothing, isn't it"

Miho considered him and then shrugged. "I guess."

The two of them were quiet for a little while longer and then Eiri stood up, dusting himself off as he did. "It's late" he said. "Let's go back inside."

After a moment, Miho nodded and stood up as well. "Okay."

"Come on." Eiri opened the door to the parking garage and paused, letting his eyes adjust. He was half-surprised when he felt a small hand touch his own and he pivoted his wrist and opened his fingers in order to grasp it.

"I don't wanna get lost" Miho said by way of explanation.

Eiri nodded wordlessly. "That's fine" he murmured. He gave her hand a light squeeze and led her through the parking garage, to the elevator, and back up the stairs. Miho dropped his hand as they approached the apartment and he glanced down at her. She did not look back up at him, and that was fine.

The apartment was quiet when they opened the door. They kicked off their shoes and then Eiri put Miho back to bed in the office. Eiri crept into his own bedroom once he knew for certain that the girl was asleep. Shuichi was quietly singing to Hibiki and Namiko, who were already sleeping quietly, curled up on either side of the singer. Shuichi started to say something, but Eiri hushed him. They carried the two children back out into the living room, returned to their room, and went to bed.

It was a long while, however, before Eiri fell asleep.

**-to be continued-**


	9. End of the Game

**Title:** Playing House

**Author:** Hawk Clowd

**Disclaimer: **Gravitation does not belong to me. Let's just leave it at that, all right? The midgets (you know, the kids), on the other hand, do.

**Blood Type:** vodka. It's good for you, really.

**Warnings:** very few.

**Part:** nine

**Author's Notes:** Well, this is the end. This chapter is six pages (single-spaced in Word), and I hope it ties up most all of the loose ends, answers some questions, and concludes the story in that nice, sadomasochistic way that I absolutely love - where things are always left open-ended and a little unresolved. Oh yes. In any case, this is the part where I'm supposed to say "I hope everyone enjoyed the story just as much as I enjoyed writing it!", but that's not the way I feel on this one. Oh no. I hope you all enjoyed this story more than I enjoyed writing it, and that it didn't drag on for too long. See you next time, Space Cowboy (and/or Cowgirl, of course)!

-

The night seemed to last far too long, and Eiri was awake for the majority of it. He had a great deal of trouble falling asleep initially, as Shuichi kept badgering him with questions, and then, once the singer finally dozed off, he simply kept replaying his conversation with Miho over and over again in his mind. It was well after midnight before the writer fell asleep, and, even then, he woke up periodically throughout the night. On those occasions, he would get out of bed and check to make sure the three children were all still asleep in their proper places. Shuichi woke up only once, as Eiri was returning to bed after his fourth child-check, and murred an inquiry at Eiri, who ignored it. The singer fell back asleep almost instantly; Eiri lay awake.

Thanks to that night's erratic sleep schedule, Eiri was already awake when the bedroom door creaked open and Hibiki and Namiko peeked inside. Eiri, who had been reading, gave them a little wave and the two children squealed and ran into the room, jumping up onto the bed next to their father. The movement and jostling awakened Shuichi, who blinked confusedly at the two children and then tried to hide under his pillow. Hibiki and Namiko would not allow it, however, and they began to tear at the blankets and the pillow, trying to expose Shuichi. Eiri let them try it for a while and then decided Shuichi was irritated enough and shooed the children out of the room. He found some cartoons for the two to watch and then went back to his room. He locked the door behind him.

Shuichi was still trying to bury himself into the mattress when Eiri returned to the bed. The writer rolled his eyes and began to gently take away the blankets covering the singer. Shuichi let out a groan of protest and grabbed for the blankets blindly, but Eiri grabbed Shuichi's arms and eased the hands back down.

"Don't be a baby," Eiri scolded.

Shuichi mumbled an obvious curse, much to Eiri's amusement, and then rolled over, onto his back. He glared pointedly at Eiri. The glare dissipated into a look of concern hardly a moment later.

Eiri frowned. "What now?"

"Are you okay?" Shuichi asked. "You look awful."

"Do not," Eiri argued, moving to lie on his stomach.

"Maybe not to the untrained eye," Shuichi insisted, climbing over Eiri's body to straddle the man's lower back and lean over in order to look at the writer's face again. "You look really tired. Did you sleep at all?"

"Yes."

"Did you sleep the whole night through?" Shuichi asked, quirking an eyebrow meaningfully. "Or even for just most of the night?"

Eiri mumbled unintelligibly but, other than that, stayed quiet.

Shuichi sighed and kissed the nape of Eiri's neck. "Why don't you try and get more sleep? I'll keep the squirts entertained for a while and you can get another few hours of rest in before you -"

"No," Eiri interrupted, pushing Shuichi off and getting out of bed. "I'll just make an early night out of this. Come on."

"Okay," Shuichi said warily, "but if you pass out on the middle of the floor, I'm going to _leave_ you on the middle of the floor, you got that?"

Eiri smirked. "Fair enough."

That said, they each took their turn in the shower, dressed, and went to the living room. Since no one was clamoring for breakfast, Eiri did not bother to make anything. Around nine o'clock, Miho emerged from the office and went past the living room, straight into Eiri's bedroom. Eiri was about to get up and coax her out of there when he heard the bathwater start to run and decided it was all right. He kept a close eye on his watch, however, and a close ear to the room until Miho re-emerged, fully clothed and slightly damp. She joined the group in the living room and settled in to watch cartoons.

An hour passed comfortably. Eiri and Shuichi sat close together on the couch, Shuichi watching cartoons over Hibiki's head and Eiri alternating between watching cartoons and dozing off. Hibiki was sitting cross-legged on the floor, close to the television, and Namiko lay on her stomach beside him, kicking her feet into the air every so often. Miho had taken a seat on the opposite end of the couch as Eiri and Shuichi, cramming herself as best she could into the back and side of the seat, as far away from the others as she could possibly get. Eiri noticed every once in a while, however, that she inched just a tad closer; he could not discern whether it was for the sake of comfort or for some other reason and didn't care to analyze the girl so early in the morning.

After some time, the program changed from cartoons to an education show that used puppets to brainwash potential viewers. Eiri had never much liked such shows, so he turned the television off and went to start cooking. No one complained, although Shuichi did took the remote and turned the television back on, although to a different channel.

The five of them ate a simple breakfast of rice and fish. Hibiki and Namiko, who had obviously become great friends over the past few days, led an animated conversation that Eiri mostly ignored. Shuichi followed it attentively, however, and even went so far as to join in, much to their delight. Miho kept her gaze locked to her food as she concentrated on the breakfast before her. Eiri simply watched the scene in silence.

It was not until the phone rang, as Eiri and Shuichi were arguing over who should be given the chore of washing the dishes, and Eiri suffered through a fifteen-minute conversation with Hibiki's mother, Ai, that the writer realized how close he was to making it through another year. It would all be over in just under sixty minutes, and then he could return to his usual routine of writing, sex, and blissful peace and quiet. He should have been thrilled, or at least relieved, he thought, but a quick glance at his eldest daughter made him feel only a pang of guilt. His conversation with the girl the night before had made him realize just how lousy a father he was; Miho, Hibiki, Namiko, and the fourth child he had met only twice were all results of his carelessness, as proven by the testimonies of the mothers themselves and several paternity tests, yet he had done nothing for them except send their mothers the occasional stipend. With the possible exception of Miho, he had no idea how difficult their lives actually were.

The real issue, of course, was that he simply did not _want_ to know. Recognizing these children and their problems meant he would have to come to terms with the fact that he had grown up and had to at last take responsibility for things he did not particularly want to think about. The children were only the least of his worries. He knew that, at least. Perhaps, though...

"Yuki?"

Eiri glanced at Shuichi, who stood by his elbow. He was grateful to be jarred out of his thoughts, but did his best not to show it. "What now?"

"Should we start getting all of them ready to go home?" Shuichi asked. "That was Hibiki's mom on the phone, yeah? We could hear her talking even over the sink and the TV and everything. She sure is loud."

Eiri nodded even though he was not sure what he was agreeing with. "Yeah."

Shuichi nodded in reply. "Yup."

Eiri glanced over Shuichi's head toward the living room, where Hibiki and Namiko were playing on the floor, warring over which was better - toy cars or toy trucks. Namiko, to Eiri's surprise, was basing her argument on actual cars. She was very firm in her opinions and, Eiri found, knew more about cars than most adults. Hibiki was, all in all, far more interested in the colors and designs of his toys. For a brief moment, Eiri wondered what the two of them would grow up to become and then he shook it off. It wasn't something with which he should be concerned.

...wasn't it?

Eiri scolded himself for making the attempt to think like a father. He had no business doing that, given his prolonged dismissal of the children he had fathered and his own failings. Although, based on what he had learned from Miho the night before, maybe - just maybe - it was about time he stepped in and did whatever it was he needed to do. On the other hand...

Shuichi stepped away from Eiri and went to get Hibiki and Namiko started on packing their things and preparing to go home. Eiri watched the exchange for a moment and then turned toward his office, where he was sure Miho was hiding.

He knocked lightly on the door and then opened it, peering inside. "Hi."

Miho glanced up from where she was neatly re-folding her clothing and readying the garments to be put back into her small suitcase. "Hello."

Eiri hesitated and then stepped into the room, taking a seat at his desk chair. He swiveled around to watch her and she pretended to be too absorbed in her folding to notice. After a few minutes of silence, Eiri cleared his throat.

"About what we spoke of last night..."

"Don't worry about it," Miho interrupted quickly. "I shouldn't have said anything."

Eiri paused. "Actually, I believe you should have said it sooner."

Miho was silent.

"I never wanted to be a father," Eiri admitted, aware that he was repeating a phrase from the night before. "However, there are a lot of things I didn't want to do or that I simply did not want to happen, and many of them occurred anyway. I have dealt with those. Perhaps it's time I dealt with this, too."

She paused in folding her nightgown and her fingers rested against the blue cotton as she waited for him to go on. "Oh?"

Baby steps, Eiri reminded himself as he fought the urge to bolt. "Yes."

"So...?"

"So perhaps I should start by..." He forced himself to finish, ashamed of his own nervousness. "By ceasing to invite you and the others over only once a year. I'm not suggesting you all say here all the time, of course. The three of you would likely go mad if you were constantly stuck with me and Shuichi, and I doubt I'd get any work done at all if I had to watch children all day long. I'm just thinking about once in a while, when you - or the others - want to stay here. For a day or two at a time. Or a week, if all goes well. Probably not a great deal longer, unless you manage to age ten or fifteen years very quickly." This was going in the wrong direction. He backtracked quickly. "But I do think I would like to see you more often."

Miho lifted his gaze to examine his face carefully.

Eiri tried not to hesitate and forced himself to meet her unsettling gaze. Since when had a five-year-old girl been able to make the great Yuki Eiri so uneasy?

"You are an actual person," he went on, wondering all the while if he was simply putting his foot in his mouth. He could not help but worry that he sounded just as awkward as he felt. "And I would like to get to know you. With your permission, of course."

Miho watched him for a moment longer and then, to Eiri's surprise, offered up a small smile. "I think that would be okay," she said.

Eiri, who suddenly felt quite relieved, returned the smile. "Well," he began, "for starters, and I do realize this is asking very far in advance, would you like to spend New Years with us? Shuichi and myself, I mean. And possibly my father and brother, if they've managed to get on my good side by then."

"I'll think about it." The smile grew, just a little, and then Miho ducked her head. It was, perhaps, simply in order to finish her folding and packing, but Eiri guessed there was more to it than that.

He did not get the chance to find out, however, as Shuichi popped his head into the room. "Hey, Namiko's mom is here."

Eiri furrowed his brow. She was early. "Already?"

There was a squeal as the apartment door was thrown open and Shuichi cringed. "Already," he confirmed just before he was dragged away by his number one fan, Mawako Nanimen - Namiko's mother. Eiri rolled his eyes, stood from his chair, and made his way out in order to save the singer from his inevitable fate. As he left the office, he heard Miho let out a faint giggle. Things, he decided, were not going to be the same from this point forward, but at least he was pretty sure he was doing the right thing.

It was all said and done only one hour later, and Eiri retired to the couch to enjoy the newfound silence. Shuichi joined him there not long after. The couch was barely large enough for the two of them to lay side-by side, but that was all right with them.

After a long while, Shuichi broke the silence. "It sounds lonely here now," he noted in a low whisper.

Eiri thought about it briefly and then nodded. "I suppose it does," he agreed.

"I really liked your kids," Shuichi went on.

"They liked you, too," Eiri assured him.

"Miho didn't."

Eiri frowned at Shuichi and tightened his grip around the singer's shoulders. "I don't think that's true." He held up a hand before Shuichi could argue. "She's very quiet and very shy. You're not. I think she simply wasn't sure how to deal with you, especially since you actually tried to be nice to her."

Shuichi twisted his head around. "I wasn't supposed to be nice to her?"

"That's not what I meant." Truly, Eiri was not sure how to put it into words. He empathized with the little girl and with all of the hard times ahead of her. Growing up 'different' was not an easy thing, especially when one felt it was impossible to trust or confide in anyone else. Eiri knew that and was not at all tempted to wish it on anyone else - especially not his estranged daughter.

"Then what _did_ you mean?" Shuichi asked, quirking an eyebrow in query.

Eiri brushed some of Shuichi's hair away from the singer's forehead and shrugged. "It isn't important," he assured the singer. "Let's just enjoy the rest of the day."

Shuichi smiled and burrowed closer to Eiri. "Yeah," he agreed. "That sounds good." He paused a moment. "I still think you made a good father, once you stopped being stupid."

"I had some idiot singer scold some sense into me a few nights ago," Eiri teased gently.

Shuichi laughed. "Yeah," he agreed. "What a jerk."

Eiri pulled on a lock of Shuichi's hair, the singer squealed and protested, and soon the two of them ended up in a tangled pile on the floor. After a while, it began to rain outside and the apartment quickly cooled down, so Eiri turned off the air conditioning, which had been running at full capacity all week long.

**-the end-**


End file.
